Once in a while I find myself writing in frustration and exasperation, having been proved wrong by events.
It is clear now that Brett Favre still wants to play in the NFL. Four months after announcing his retirement, which included the interestingly ambiguous words "I can still play football. I'm just not sure that I want to", Favre has apparently decided that he does want to play again.
But not for the Green Bay Packers.
He has apparently emailed the Packers asking to be reinstated from the Reserve-Retired List (where he was placed after announcing this retirement earlier this year) and then released by the team.
Technically, the Packers have three choices. They can re-instate Favre to the active roster and use him. They can release him, in which case he immediately becomes a free agent, free to sign with any team. Or they can try to trade him.
In the latter case, until (and if) Green Bay finds a trade partner, Favre uses up a roster spot as if he was an active player. Given that he is on the backside of his career, it is unlikely that any team will be prepared to assume his current contract with its $12m salary. Favre therefore needs to be prepared to re-structure his contract to facilitate any trade. Given that he has asked for his release, it is unlikely he will agree to this. No contract re-structuring really eliminates any market for a trade. Right now trading Favre is going to be impossible.
For the Packers, this really is a case of "rock meet hard place, hard place meet rock". They could keep Favre, but if he is pissed off, that will not work, and it is likely that Aaron Rodgers will demand a trade out of Green Bay, since he would conclude (possibly correctly) that the Packers and Favre have jointly screwed him over.
They can release him, take a cap hit on the remaining portion of his signing bonus, and then hope that Rodgers proves to be a worthy successor. If he is not effective in the upcoming season, then that will probably terminate the career of Packers GM Ted Thompson. It may also terminate the career of Head Coach Mike McCarthy.
Geez, this is a mess. Sadly, I lay most of the blame with Brett Favre. He clearly couldn't make up his mind whether or not to retire, but went ahead with the announcement anyway and now, like the ageing boxer who thinks he has "one more great fight" left in him, he wants to play on. Somebody needs to explain to him that there is nothing wrong with retiring while you are still able to perform. Perhaps he needs to talk to Robert Smith and Barry Sanders, who both walked away in their prime, even though they could have continued to play on and make big money. OTOH he may need to avoid talking to Jerry Rice, who continued to play until the Denver Broncos told him that he did not have the performance any more to be an NFL regular-season receiver.
Are the Packers also to blame for the mess? It depends on whether you believe that they have to have Brett Favre under center until Favre wants to retire. The Packers clearly believed that they needed a quick decision from him this year, and they also believed that Aaron Rodgers is ready to become the starting quarterback. Players come and go, but teams have to continue into the future. I don't fault the Packers for wanting a decision from Favre. I also don't know what else they could have done once Favre decided that he still wanted to play in the NFL.
Perhaps the best idea is for Brett to talk to Joe Montana, who was traded by the 49ers late in his career to the Kansas City Chiefs. Montana was replaced at the 49ers by the younger and more mobile Steve Young, but hung around for two more seasons with the Chiefs. Brett might get some older wisdom from "Joe Cool".